Is there really a 3d printer using stone and sand

Is there really a 3d printer using stone and sand

Dear,

I am hearing about 'stone spray' 3D Printer. It is a robot that uses soil as a main building material. It mixes the soil with a solidifier component and sprays it on surfaces to create structures. The goal of the project was to research the field of additive manufacturing in architecture and to propose a new eco-friendly, efficient and interesting system to print architecture in 3D.

Thank you.

Is there really a 3d printer using stone and sand

The 3D printer you are referring to that uses sand or soil to create objects is called “Stone Spray”. Stone Spray is a new machine that uses natural sand or soil to build or construct solid objects. It aims to be the starting point for creating or building much larger infrastructure like buildings or bridges with the use of 3D printing.

The Stone Spray machine works just like your normal 3D printer which uses a computer to follow a 3D design and uses a mechanical arm to build objects by layering materials. Petr Novikov, Anna Kulik, and Inder Shergill are the architects behind the creation of the machine who wanted to bring 3D printing concepts to construction work and with eco-friendly materials.

The machine sprays sand or soil that has been mixed with solidifying agent from a nozzle attached to the arm. The machine doesn’t only layer the material upward; it can build in numerous directions even outwards from vertical surfaces creating arches and other shapes. Once the material has been deposited, it takes several hours for the object to dry.

When the construction is complete, the object looks like a coral but as solid and strong as concrete. At the moment, the Stone Spray machine constructs objects in small scale but the machine proves that this kind of digital construction could be done on a larger scale in the future.